Main menu

Two Ways of Knowing: Creating Ancient Maya History through Inscriptions and Archaeology

Date:

Sep 18, 2017, 6:00 pm

Location:

Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

TIkal Temple I, Guatemala. Photo by Raymond Ostertag

2017 Tatiana Proskouriakoff Lecture and Reception Free and open to the public

Simon Martin, Associate Curator and Keeper of Collections, American Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Scholars have made signifcant advances in the interpretation of ancient Maya hieroglyphs in the past forty years. The deep understanding of these inscriptions makes the study of the ancient Maya as complex and layered as that of Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek, or Roman civilizations—each of which combines the reading of texts with the physical remains of archaeological excavations. This important development, however, also raises issues about how the integration of textual and material evidence is best achieved. Simon Martin will explore this challenge within the context of Maya studies and review the academic debate over the ways in which history is both discovered and created.